Saturday, July 24, 2010

It's not just Ryan Reynolds who will have visibly striated muscle in Martin Campbell's Green Lantern film: Abin Sur will too, apparently. /Film got this look at the bizarre effigy from Comic Con, where it was revealed that a creative decision has been made to seemingly remove the skin from Green Lantern's alien mentor. At least he's modest.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Showtime remains tight-lipped about what's going down in the upcoming season of "Dexter," but recently cast Julia Stiles ("10 Things I Hate About You") opened up -- if only a tad -- about her new role and what drew her to the series.

"I watch a lot of shows on HBO and Showtime," Stiles tells the New York Times, "but I was sort of reluctant about working on one -- until 'Dexter' came along, because I also really love the way that they've set up these guest actors. There's always a really interesting arc that a guest needs to do."

It doesn't hurt that she comes on the heels of the series' most-praised guest to date. John Lithgow took home a Golden Globe for his supporting turn as the trinity killer, and that same role recently earned him an Emmy nomination for guest actor.

So will Stiles follow in his serial killer footsteps or might she provide some post-Rita love interest for newly widowed Dexter? It's still up in the air. But what we do know is that the character's name is Lumen, and she's described as "psychologically and physically damaged." Her introduction to the cast presents Dexter with a dilemma -- which sounds like it has love interest written all over it.

For now, the TV newbie just seems excited by the idea of playing a character over the course of a season. "In a weird way it reminds me of the making of the 'Bourne' movies," she says. "The script is always changing, so you might shoot a scene and then all of a sudden you are handed pages, and you have to memorize your lines really quickly. It's like acting in a vacuum a little bit. There's a different kind of challenge, but part of me really likes it."

Sunday, July 18, 2010

We don’t yet know the details of Tom Felton’s new contract with record label Six String Productions, but, really, does it matter? Draco Malfoy is singing, here. And for the record, everything about that is righteous.

Felton is already an accomplished musician, having released bunches of folky-pop love songs on YouTube that are -- again, for the record -- adorable (so adorable we've embedded one after the break). There are scant few details about what kind of album Felton will release, other than the fact that he’s releasing it. But if Felton’s earlier recordings are any indication, we’re probably looking at an acoustic-guitar-centric, singer-songwriter groove.

Which is fine, really. It is. But if Felton doesn’t throw in at least one campy cover of a Beatles tune or a protest ballad, he’s missing a key opportunity.

Hollywood boasts a long history of actors from other massive franchises who have segued into music careers, but who have gone in a very different direction. We speak, of course, of camp.

By way of example: Brent Spiner’s "Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back," William Shatner’s cover of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and Leonard Nimoy’s rendition of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins." Now, those guys all came out of "Star Trek," of course, and that’s sci-fi, not fantasy, but still, it’s genre, and it’s a fanboy favorite, and it’s close enough for our purposes.

All of the above efforts may not be the most serious examples of professional music-making, but we heart them. Heart them almost as much as we heart the idea of Draco Malfoy singing.

If Draco Malfoy wants to record only happy romantic guitar ballads about how he got his favorite girl to leave her cellphone at home -- and he has -- that’s awesome. But if he were to, say, fold in a campy song or two about space, or dragons, or unicorns, or -- as Shatner chose to do -- "Mr. Tambourine Man," that too would not go unthanked.

Director Roman Polanski, freed this week after Switzerland refused an U.S. extradition request, made his first public outing Saturday to see his wife perform at the Montreaux Jazz Festival.

High security prevented the media from getting close to the 76-year-old film director as he arrived to attend Emmanuelle Seigner's concert with festival founder Claude Nobs in a 4x4 with tinted windows.

Polanski had been under house arrest pending the U.S. demand, refused Monday, for him to be sent to California to face justice for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

The director stayed out of sight throughout the concert, which Seigner began with the theme from Polanski's 1968 cult classic "Rosemary's Baby," in the only reference to her husband in the performance in the small town by Lake Leman.

Earlier Polanski had said he maintained "a great friendship for Switzerland and above all ... for its people who solidly supported me," in an interview with Swiss television, to be broadcast Saturday night.

"I do not know what I am going to do next," the Oscar-winning filmmaker said, according to the transcript of the interview on the website of Television Suisse Romande.

"For the moment, I am happy to be free."

The French-Polish director of "The Pianist" and "Chinatown" said his son Elvis had cut the electronic bracelet he had worn throughout his house arrest in Gstaad, adding that he "could easily have escaped but I never wanted to."

Polanski said he would return to Gstaad, the millionaires' playground in southeastern Switzerland where he has a luxury chalet, and thanked its inhabitants for bringing him flowers, wine and support.

He also thanked those who defended him, despite the controversy over his case, and his wife and children, "without whom I would never have succeeded in keeping my dignity and perseverance."

Polanski has not returned to the United States since 1977, when he fled after making a plea bargain in the child sex case. His last film, "The Ghost Writer," was set in the United States but filmed on location in Germany.

Spencer Pratt always has some strange new ploy for attention up his sleeve – but not his split from wife Heidi Montag.

That, he says, despite the fact that nobody has seen divorce papers and family and Hills castmates are skeptical, is the real deal.

"We love each other but I'm a famewhore and I'll never grow out of it." Pratt tells PEOPLE. "[Heidi] knows that and doesn't want that."

"I want every kind of press," he says. "She believes in bad press. There's no way my love for fame and her love for puppies will ever work out successfully. She just wants to hike and hang out and be calmer."

As for their infamous "Speidi," moniker, Pratt says his estranged wife "doesn’t want to be Speidi anymore. She wants to be Heidi Montag: the sex symbol."

"She thought I'd burn out of this, but no, I'm still the same Spencer who went on The Hills to be famous," he says. "I still need to do stunts and take cues from Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

Pratt, who mentions he and his ex are "friendly," says Speidi trouble is nothing new. "It's been a constant battle since we got married," he says. "She would be like, 'Are you really Tweeting that? Are you really doing that?'"

So what's next for the limelight-loving reality personality?

When fighting cyber crime fell through, Pratt says he decided to grow a beard and turn to art. "I'm switching it up," he says. "I've already gone for the blonde, spiky-haired look. Now I'm going for the Hollywood producer look."

Continues Pratt: "I'm an artist now. I have an easel and everything. I'm going for an art show and a gallery."

Friday, July 16, 2010

Victoria Beckham has been discussing Lady Gaga and claimed that she was not initially a fan but is warming to the outrageous star.Beckham said: "I adore the American '40s look. And I love modern pop - I am a gay man in a woman's body, so God supposes I should love singers like Lady GaGa.

"It's complicated, on the one hand I wouldn't like to have all her songs on my iPod and listen to them over and over. On the other hand, I admire the Lady GaGa phenomenon."

She added: "At first I didn't like her or the way she dressed. Now she is working with designers and wearing couture clothes.

"Bit by bit she is finding her image and it's nice to see it as she is undoubtedly talented girl."And that ladies and gentlemen, is praise indeed.

The rumor mill is a never-ending cycle of hear-say, and Nick Jonas has recently found himself in the middle of a relationship rumor.

After being spotted out together, his “Les Miserables” co-star, Lucie Jones, tweeted, "Hey everyone ... just wanted to clear up a rumor - there's nothing romantically happening between nick and I guys!"

She added, "He's a great friend but nothing more. Hope you're all well, love you guys!"

Chiming in on the topic as well, the JoBro said, "The story about me dating both my costars Samantha Barks AND Lucie Jones is untrue," he wrote. "I love and respect the people I work with very much."

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Jay Manuel in the 'Degrassi' movie: EW exclusive sneak peek at two of our favorite Canadian thingsby Jennifer Armstrong

We admit it: We're suckers for all things Degrassi and Top Model. Oh, and all things Canadian (Alanis Morissette, universal health care, Bachelorette scandals). So we're particularly looking forward to The Heat Is On, this summer's Degrassi movie event airing July 19 on TeenNick, in which the angsty Canadian high schoolers lighten up and take a trip to Manhattan - where they meet up with Top Model's Jay Manuel (who's also Canadian!). Here, after the jump, an exclusive sneak-peek clip in which Holly J. (Charlotte Arnold) encounters Mr. Jay before her first day at her summer internship at a place that looks startlingly like MTV (but is apparently called TVM - totally different).

Listening to Mel Gibson's latest round of recorded rants begs a number of questions, one bigger than any other:

What is wrong with this guy?

He growls. He pants. He demands oral sex and threatens to burn down a house. Instead of apologizing for allegedly breaking the teeth of his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva (while she was holding their 8-month-old child, no less), he says she deserved it.

He hurls insults so vile, he makes Ari Gold's tirades sound like sweet nothings. Could mental health issues be to blame?

In the 2008 documentary "Acting Class of 1977," Gibson revealed he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. "I had really good highs but some very low lows," Gibson said. "I found out recently I'm manic depressive."

Gibson was interviewed for the documentary by one of his National Institude of Dramatic Art classmates in 2002, four years before his 2006 DUI arrest, in which he spat anti-semitic slurs that he later said were "blurted out in a moment of insanity." He's rarely brought up his bipolar diagnosis since.

Now, in the wake of Gibson's leaked phone conversations with Grigorieva, and with the Los Angeles Police Department investigating possible domestic violence charges against him, his mental condition could be of mammoth importance. Medical experts agreed that without examining Gibson firsthand, it's impossible to verify whether or not he's bipolar. But doctors say his recorded rants point to mental health issues as well as alcohol abuse, a demon Gibson has dealt with throughout his life.

"Based on what we're seeing with these episodes of rage followed by apparently normal periods in between, that could be a classic symptom of bipolar disorder," said Dr. Dale Archer, a psychiatrist who founded The Institute for Neuropsychiatry in Lake Charles, Louisiana. "Bipolar can lower your impulse control, and if you couple that with the fact that he has had this longstanding substance abuse problem, absolutely, that could lead someone to go off on a rant like this."

"Usually in a manic episode, the conversation is very rapid. Words come together very quickly. Listening to that tape, the way he's speaking, he's sounding out those curses," she said. "It sounds a lot more like a sociopathic kind of personality, and those are people with absolutely no remorse and no ability to have sympathy for someone in pain."

Anderson also questioned Grigorieva's mental state and the authenticity of the recordings. In the majority of the recordings released by RadarOnline, Grigorieva sounds calm and detached. Gibson's rants, filled with obscenities -- "You need a f*****g bat in the side of the head," "You need a f*****g soul," "You're a f*****g whore -- now, I own you" -- barely seem to phase her.

"Most people would get off that phone or be screaming hysterically," Anderson said. "There's none of that here. It's almost like she's dead emotionally. Whether she's traumatized or whether this is scripted, she does not respond like any woman who I have worked with who has gotten these kind of terrifying calls."

I watched it yesterday night, of course, and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. The cinematography is unlike any other USA Network show — okay, maybe excluding White Collar. I can't wait for next Tuesday.

Lindsay Lohan would rather kill herself than be locked away in jail. The 24-year-old actress is reportedly so upset over the 90 day jail sentence looming over her since July 6, that she’s threatening to take her own life.

After Lindsay’s discovered she’d be serving time at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif., Star reports she went home and broke everything in sight.

“She ran around breaking mirrors, cutting herself and rambling like a lunatic. She tore her house apart before she finally just broke down,” reveals a source. “Lindsay’s on a 24/7 suicide watch, it’s so bad. She isn’t doing well with this.”

Not only is Lindsay going around saying she wants to kill herself but she’s taking a lethal dose of prescription drugs.

“She has been doctor shopping across the country,” she says. “She is utterly unable to control her use of any mind-altering substance.”

The 22-year-old singer spent several hours in a luxury department store in Beverly Hills last week searching for presents for her boyfriend, baseball player Matt Kemp. She found several designer items for Matt, and even more for herself, and ended up needing help taking all her purchases back to her waiting car.

“Rihanna went to Barneys in Beverly Hills, where she spent over $45,000 on herself and $15,000 on things for Matt. He got an Armani suit, Prada shoes and a Goyward bag, among other things,” an insider told British magazine More!

“Rihanna loves to shop and she buys stuff for Matt all the time.”

Rihanna started dating Matt earlier this year. They have been on separate continents for most of their romance, with Rihanna touring in Europe and Matt training in Los Angeles.

Despite their long-distance relationship, the couple are closer than ever, and friends say they are the “real deal”.

“What they have is real and solid and it’s tender,” a friend said. “They have grown into being best friends and lovers. He treats her like a princess. It was really hard for her to open up after what happened with Chris Brown, but Matt made her feel safe enough to love him.”

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Take a good look at the photo up top. One of the three studmuffins—okay, two studmuffins and one very handsome young man—will come tumbling out of the closet on 90210 this fall.

And this isn’t some sort of angst-fueled, bi-curious sweeps arc a la Adrianna’s season 2 flirtation with Rumer Willis. We will learn that the straight acting character in question—let the record show that we’re referring to Matt Lanter’s recovering rebel Liam, Michael Steger’s smart and tenderhearted Navid, and Trevor Donovan’s tennis pro Teddy—is actually gay.

How can I be so sure? Well, for starters, one of the show’s producers is confirming it. “We want to address the issue in a real and relatable way,” says co-EP Jennie Urman, who says the coming out plot is but one of several “great storylines” fans can look forward to in season 3.

You know who are awesome? Old people are awesome. Especially old, brilliant, prolific artists who don’t give a damn what inside information they drop in public — or how they drop it. Take Ray Bradbury, the legendary 89-year-old author whose Fahrenheit 451 film rights belong to...Mel Gibson. Awkward! And of course Bradbury has a funny (if brief) story about it, which he recently shared via Skype with a crowd in Chicago.

The interview comes from Sunday’s Siskel Center screening of Francois Truffaut’s 1966 Fahrenheit adaptation. Bradbury knows as well as the rest of us that we’ll never see Gibson’s version in his or probably any of our lifetimes, and his pragmatic status report might honestly be the most palatable fallout to date from the whole Gibson/Grigorieva horror show. Thanks for keeping it real, Ray.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

If you're like me, your Fourth of July was marred by the fact that there was no new True Blood to savor. The show returns Sunday night with the fourth episode of season 3, "9 Crimes," and the preview offers some excitement, mostly surrounding a steaming hot Sookie-Eric kiss.

First, here's the official description of the episode:

"Sookie joins Alcide at a raucous engagement party for his former fiancee, Debbie Pelt; Eric is given a deadline to locate Bill; Andy gets a promotion and draws Jason's attention; Franklin takes Tara on a road trip; Arlene is irked by Jessica's arrival at Merlotte's; Sam brokers a deal with Tommy and his parents; Bill "procures" dinner for Russell and Lorena."

A werewolf engagement party could be cool as does the comedic potential of Jessica and Arlene interacting. Check out the video preview:

Something tells me Sookie won't accept Bill telling her to stop looking for him, and I'm equally suspicious of her seduction of Eric. Unlike most fans, Sookie doesn't seem to realize how much better Eric is than Bill.

It looks like Jason will blackmail Andy to become a cop. That's usually not a good start for a career.

Why can't Tara find a decent man? She was hung up on Jason, she got it on with Sam even though she knew he had feelings for Sookie, then she started dating Maryann's puppet Eggs, now she's being taken on a wild ride with a vampire? Poor girl.

I'm most excited for the werewolf engagement party. We've spent two years getting to understand the vampire culture and yet we know nothing about the were community, so this could help flesh it out.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Lindsay Lohan is reportedly angling for $1 million for her first post-jail interview, and going to prison could end up boosting sales of her clothing line, too. "Financially, it's the best thing that could have ever happened to Lindsay."

Lately, Lindsay's main sources of income have been paid appearances and tweeting for cash, which pay no more than a few thousand a pop. But jailhouse confessions? Those are really worth something. Paris Hilton was reportedly offered $1 million for hers. (But ultimately gave it away for free to Larry King.) Popeater's Rob Shuter reports,

"Expect to see a major TV and magazine deal," a source close to Lindsay tells me. "Lindsay might have made a lot of mistakes, but she knows how much her first interview is worth. She won't even consider offers of less than $1 million."

Of course, they won't literally be paying for the interview—as is de rigueur for American checkbook journalism, she will technically be paid for some sort of primary material (video confessionals?) so the interview can remain "unpaid."

"Lindsay has mind share right now, so people will be interested to see what the merchandise looks like," said Jeff Vansinderen, a senior retail analyst at B. Riley & Co. "Times are tough right now in the retail environment and if I'm a retailer, I'm going to put the merchandise out there and try to sell it."

"This is a hard incident, and we don't know how the consumer is going to react," said Fraser Ross, owner of Kitson stores, who ordered about $15,000 worth of 6126 apparel for this month. He acknowledged that Lohan could get out of jail in as few as 23 days "as the clothes are hitting stores and there will be interest in her."

Once she has all her post-prison money, LiLo can blow it all on a massive coke bender, go to jail for that, give more interviews and reap more profits, and—whoops! Looks like we've fallen into a vortex of infinite regression, degradation, and debauchery. This process is also known as "show business."